In the era of large language models and talks of artificial general intelligence, scientists are understandably reinvigorated to understand the inner workings of human consciousness— and there are a lot of theories to go around.
But in a new, non-peer reviewed article published in Interalia Magazine, as well as a deep-dive explanation of the article on the website The Conversation, Cardiff University’s Peter Halligan and University College of London’s David Oakley instead argue that consciousness actually arose for its social benefits rather than its individualistic ones.
“Consciousness may have evolved to facilitate key social adaptive functions,” the authors write in The Conversation. “Rather than helping individuals survive, it evolved to help us broadcast our experienced ideas and feelings into the wider world. And this might benefit the survival and wellbeing of the wider species.”
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Understanding the nuts and bolts of humanity’s most defining characteristic is immensely important, especially as AI companies forge ahead forming machines that can, at the very least, mimic the idea of volitional movement.
But without the slow-but-steady guiding hand of evolution, or any sense of need to develop consciousness to improve social cohesion, exactly what kind of consciousness will humankind create?
